Something Borrowed
by StarsHollow4ever
Summary: After Rory leaves the Obama campaign trail, she finds herself on another trail that leads her back to Jess.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess and Taylor and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

* * *

_**This story is based loosely on the concept used in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and picks up with Rory just as she's ending her job as a traveling campaign reporter.**_

* * *

It was a cool, crisp day in the autumn of November 2008. Rory had just finished up her reporter's job on the 2008 presidential campaign trail and celebrated Obama's victory with her colleagues and the day after that momentous occasion, she awoke to realize she was jobless and back in the real world again so she did what always came normal to her in a time of crisis – look for the closest male shoulder to cry on.

This time, that shoulder belonged to Jess Mariano. She arrived at his doorstep just days after the election was over and he absolutely melted when he starred into her bottomless blue eyes. She put down her bag by the door inside his apartment and he took her by the hands and invited her to take a stroll in his neighborhood so they could talk and get reacquainted.  
As they stopped to sample the best Philly cheese steak sandwich in the city, Rory spotted snow starting to fall and she hoped her mother was seeing first snow fall of the season in Stars Hollow, since she knew how much she lived for each autumn's first snow fall.

After they nourished themselves on the deliciously, beefy, cheesy sandwiches and lots of French fries and several cups of coffee, they resumed their walk around the neighborhood and came across a second hand clothing store called "Fashion Flashbacks," that sold only garments that were at least 25 years old.|

Rory couldn't help notice that there was a wedding dress that hung in the window, with a sign hanging from it that said "Free." It was absolutely the most beautiful wedding gown she had ever seen. She stopped to inspect it and admired its composition of lace and beaded pearls and yards of ivory satin material.

"Mmm… Jess… I don't want to put you on the spot or anything by making you think I was out scouting wedding dresses, but I wonder why a dress as elegant as this would ever be free. This is the sort of gown that my own grandmother would have demanded to wear on her wedding day if she saw it in the window. Do you mind if I pop inside to check this out?"

"Sure, I'd love to see what this nonsense is all about. It's probably some sort of vacation resort pitch or a ploy to sell raffle tickets, but… whatever…" he commented as he took a cigarette out and started puffing on it while he cast an amused glance in her direction that almost seemed to already say "I told you so," even before she walked into the shop.  
About ten minutes later, Rory walked out of the shop with a perplexed and disappointed expression on her face.

"What's the matter, Rory? You need me to take care of someone in there for you?" Jess asked, ready to pounce on whoever offended her.

"It's so weird, Jess. They said the dress was free, but only temporarily –"

"Uh, huh – here comes the catch. We might as well be walking around Stars Hollow instead of Philadelphia, because it's already sounding like something weird they'd enjoy. I can see the whole town rallying around the gazebo while that wack job, Miss Patty, holds the dress up and announces they have a wedding dress that's temporarily for free – lame!"

"Well, yes, it's weird that the dress has to be returned, but the conditions for getting to wear the wedding dress are that you must be getting married within six weeks and you must be getting married in a different town because they want the dress to hang in a different shop after each wedding and – the last condition – they want you to write up a story about how your how husband proposed and details about the wedding, so they can add it a historical book they're writing and they don't plan to publish the book until the year 2030, when the wedding gown will be a hundred years old!"

"Ah… jeez! You're kidding right? " Jess remarked sarcastically, it reminded him of something his goofy mother, Liz, would have dreamed up.

"Jess, I have an idea," Rory declared dreamily. "Why don't we get married in Stars Hollow and then I'll get to wear the gown and be in the book!"

Jess took a long drag on his cigarette, pausing before he answered her.

**TO BE CONTINUED….  
**


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

* * *

"Go get your damn dress, Gilmore!" Jess replied impulsively as he stamped his cigarette out on the snowy sidewalk.

"You mean it, Jess?" Rory cried out excitedly.

"Sure, why not? Luke told me it's been kind of quiet around Stars Hollow lately, so we might as well have a wedding there to shake the kooks up."

"Oh, Jess, you're the best! Now when I talk to my mother and she starts asking about me getting another job, at least I'll be to tell her I'm getting married so she'll know I'm doing something with my life."

"Huh," Jess muttered for about the eighty fifth billion time in his life. He was officially beginning to worry. He thought it was odd that Rory impulsively showed up his door step, then impulsively proposed to him based on the romantic notion of being able to wear a "free" wedding gown, but her remark about telling Lorelai that she was getting married just to keep her off her back, sent his suspicions over the top. He decided to play it cool for the time being and figure out a way, in the meantime, to test her real motives. He wished he didn't need to, it'd hurt him so much when he'd lost out on her to Yale and Logan, but he couldn't walk into a marriage lightly after seeing all the marriages his own mother had been in and out of.

About a week later, a golden opportunity presented itself to test Rory's motives when he and she made a trip to Stars Hollow to visit Luke and Lorelai to tell them about the wedding. Luke and Lorelai were still together, but had still never gotten around to re-setting their wedding date and Jess hoped that neither Rory or her mother were going to get it in their head to have a double wedding ceremony.

The second day they were in town, Jess and Rory were at the counter at Luke's diner, each slurping their third cup of coffee when they both heard Emily Gilmore's voice ring out.

"You see, Logan, I told you we'd find our little princess here!" she called out cheerfully as they entered the restaurant.

"Ace!" Logan called out as he threw his arms around her and lifted her up in the air.

"Logan!" Rory replied in shock."What are you doing here? I never expected to see you again!"

"Nice to see you again, too, Ace," Logan remarked good-naturedly.

Rory was stunned to see how much Logan's looks had improved beyond what she'd already considered handsome. California had really agreed with him. He was incredibly tanned and the sun had lightened his hair, which he wore longer now, and he looked as though he'd really been working out since they'd last seen each other.

"So how's California?" Rory asked nervously.

"Good, but not good enough, I'm definitely more East Coast than West Coast. I had to get back here to wake myself up. I'm going to be starting my new job with the _NY Times_ in a couple of weeks and I thought I'd make the rounds and catch up with some of my old college friends. You look good, Rory. What have you been doing with yourself?"

It was a question Rory dreaded answering. She'd been so proud of her job as a reporter on the campaign trail, but now she was unemployed again and Logan was already starting his second journalism job. She also felt awkward about telling him she was now engaged to Jess. When Logan had proposed to her, she'd refused on the grounds that she'd need to explore her career opportunities and that marriage was going to get in her way and now it was over a year later and she was hardly the star reporter she'd hoped to be and now she'd agree to marry someone else.

"Oh, we're proud of our Rory," Emily beamed, sparing her from having to be the one to answer his question. "She just got back from a very important job, working as a reporter for the Obama campaign and I'm sure with that experience, she's going to be flooded with offers for other jobs."

"Oh, Grandma, it was just an online magazine job," Rory remarked humbly.

"Oh, Rory, you're much too modest," Emily laughed.

"Well, Ace, that _is_ impressive experience. I happen to know the _Times_ has an entry level position for a political reporter opening very soon. I almost applied for it myself, but I ended up going ahead and taking a business spot with the paper, instead. I could put in a good word for you and I'm sure you'd get it."

Rory swallowed hard. A political reporter for the _New York Times_! She'd been sorely disappointed when she hadn't been hired by them right out of college, but now she had a sure connection with Logan to get the job this time. All of a sudden she remembered her commitment to Jess and bit her tongue instead of agreeing to accept Logan's generous offer, but before she had a chance to introduce Jess as her fiancée, her grandmother interrupted.

"Oh, Logan, that's a wonderful suggestion. Rory should take the job at the _Times_ and that way you two kids could live near each other," Emily suggested, pleased with herself that she'd had a hand in "reuniting" Rory with Logan, the only man she considered good enough for her granddaughter. She hadn't even noticed Jess sitting next to her this whole time.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

Rory dreamed for a few seconds that everything her grandmother said about taking the job with the _Times _and living near Logan in Manhattan was about to come true, but she knew she'd already promised Jess she was going to marry him, so she didn't see any possible way out of backing out of the commitment she'd made to him. Oh, how she wished she'd hadn't jumped into this engagement so quickly. It was just like her life to have the biggest and best opportunity fall right into her lap and still be out of her reach.

"Grandma, I can't go work for the_ Times,_ I'm getting married to Jess in less than six weeks!"

"What on earth is a 'Jess'?" Emily demanded to know in an annoyed tone of voice.

"I don't know, but if you find out what one is, let me know," Jess quipped as he got off his stool and headed for the door. It was apparent to him where he stood since it took so long for Rory to mention him.

"Jess, wait!" Rory cried out, running after him.

"Don't worry, Chris – I mean Logan – I'll take care of this. No granddaughter of mine is throwing her life away to marry a loser like that!"

"Hey!" Luke called out angrily. "He is not a loser – he's _my _nephew!"

"Same difference," Emily replied sharply, casting a steely, condescending gaze in Luke's direction, thankful that Lorelai had never actually gone through with her plans to marry Luke.

"Jess! Wait up!" Rory pleaded as she ran down the street after him, but it was no use, he'd already boarded the express bus to Hartford, which she was sure he was taking to transfer to another bus to get back to Philly and it was the last express bus out of Stars Hollow for the day. She decided she'd spend the night in Stars Hollow and go to Philly in the morning.

Meanwhile, Luke was determined that Emily was not going to succeed in breaking Rory and Jess up, like she'd try to do with him and Lorelai on many previous occasions. He, too, was going to make a trip to Philly the next day to talk to Jess to make sure he wouldn't back down from marrying Rory. Little did Luke know that Jess had already been having second thoughts about the wedding before Emily and Logan had ever set foot in the diner that afternoon.

"Well, hello my long lost daughter," Lorelai called out as Rory walked through the front door. "I thought Jess was coming back over here with you. Is he at Luke's?"

"Oh, Mom!" Rory replied, crying and hugging Lorelai. "I was so happy when Jess and I came back to Stars Hollow. We came back to tell you we're getting married and now I think Grandma ruined everything!

"Well, honey, ruining people's lives is what she does best. Especially when it involves a Gilmore Girl wanting to be with a man that she didn't hand pick, then she is _uber_-motivated to ruin your life!"

"I still can't figure out how she found me today. But she came into the diner with Logan and –"

"Are you kidding me?" Lorelai shrieked, now it had become too personal. She couldn't stand Logan and had breathed a sigh of relief when Rory turned his marriage proposal down, but now hearing about her mother resurrecting him and bringing him back into Rory's life was almost a declaration of war in Lorelai's book.

"No, she brought Logan into the diner and he's moved back here and he's going to start working for the _New York Times _in two weeks and he even said that he could get me a job at the paper and that's when Grandma said it would be a good idea for me to take the job so Logan and I could live near each other and –"

"She _said_ that even though you had already told her that you and Jess were engaged?"

"Well, no… I hadn't gotten around to telling her that yet, but…"

"But what, Rory?"

"I did tell her, but I guess I waited because it felt so good to dream about getting that opportunity to work at the _Times_."

"Mmm… I see," Lorelai mused, all of the sudden Rory's motives for getting married to Jess had become quite transparent and she completely understood why he took off for Philly .

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

* * *

The next day, after Lorelai saw Rory off on the early bus, she walked over to Luke's Diner for some much needed coffee and to find out what he'd seen at the diner the day before when Rory was there with Jess and her mother came in with Logan.

"Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!" Lorelai called out from the counter like she'd done a thousand times before. This time, however, Luke did not find it one bit charming and rather grumpily poured the coffee into her tall, red mug, without even so much as a "Good Morning."

Lorelai took a sip and spat it out almost immediately because it was practically room temperature instead of piping hot. "Bleeccchh!" she screamed out. "That's even more luke warm than your pathetic _Luke,_ so-not-warm greeting that you gave me when I got here just now."

"What greeting?" Luke said. "I didn't say a_nything_ when you came in here," he groused, _finally _saying something to her.

"Well, Mr. Grouchy Pants, now that the cat finally gave you back your tongue, would you mind telling me what happened in hereyesterday when my daughter was here?"

"Why don't you ask that truly _wonderful _mother of yours? She was in here trying to get Rory married off to that blond idiot, who looked like a reject from that _90210_ show, who – by the way- I thought Rory had already turned down. What's her problem?"

"Well, she's bound and determined that at least one of us is going to marry a man she can brag about to her stupid DAR group."

"DAR? What the hell is that supposed to stand for?"

"Well, it's supposed to stand for _Daughters of the American Revolution_, but I think it really means _Damn, Aren't We Racist_?"

"Wouldn't that make it DAWR?" he quipped.

"I guess, if you want to be a fanatic about it. But then that would mean you'd have to change _Daughters of the American Revolution_ to DOTAR instead of DAR."

"Point well taken," he agreed as he handed her a warmed cherry Danish and a hotter mug of coffee.

"Mmm…" Lorelai enthused, "hot coffee and a warm cherry Danish. This day can only get better and better."

"Maybe for you, but I don't know if it will for Jess. He looked pretty down when he left here yesterday. I can't believe your mother, bringing that yo-yo in here and ignoring Jess while she tried to push Rory and that other guy together."

"Well, I got news for you Luke, from the way I heard Rory telling the story, it almost seemed to me like she wanted to go to New York and if that's the way she feels, then my mother might have done Jess a favor when she barged in here the way she did. I know if someone wanted to put their career ahead of me, I'd sure like to know about before I took the plunge."

"Oh, that's ridiculous, Rory's not like that," Luke replied, scoffing at Lorelai's observation. "She's _your _daughter, so I'm sure she knows love is more important."

"She's also Emily Gilmore's _granddaughter _and that woman has been wielding a lot of influence over since her days at Chilton. That's why it was easy for her to dump Dean to go out with Jess. I raised her to have a heart, but my mother _raised_ her to put what you want first above all else. I imagine that if she really wants to go to New York and work on the _Times_ paper, then that's what's she going to do."

"Yeah, well, Jess didn't have to have _anyone_ influence him. He's always been his own man and he's smart enough to see what Rory's planning to do before she's even had a chance to even think about adding it those famous pro and con lists she's always making."

"I can't argue about Jess not letting anyone else ever do his thinking for him," Lorelai agreed, as she drained the last delicious drop from her coffee mug and held it out for Luke to refill.

"No!" Luke replied playfully, knowing himself that he was going to give into her request anyway.

"Pwwweeessee! Me need more coffee!" Lorelai replied, twisting her bottom lip into a sensuous mock pout and doing her best baby talk voice to charm him.

"Get it from Lane. I have to go run an errand," he said, as he motioned to Lane to refill Lorelai's mug with some more coffee.

"Oooh! Can I come wif?" Lorelai called out as he practically ran towards the door.

"No!" he replied, not looking back. He was on his way to Philly and he did not want Jess to feel like he was being ambushed by dragging Lorelai along with him.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

* * *

As Rory's Greyhound bus exited of Union Station in Hartford and rolled out onto South 91, she leaned against the window and started thinking about her big decision. _New York, Philly, New York, Philly_… it kept playing in her head for almost a solid hour, almost like the words were keeping rhythm with the motion of the bus wheels. She stared at her watch and realized this was silly. She had another 3 hours to go on the bus and she could go insane from thinking about this all the way to Philadelphia. She tried to divert her attention away from her troubles by staring out at the remnants of what was left of the autumn colors that were fading rapidly from the New England countryside before she lapsed into a very long nap.

Rory slept so soundly that she didn't even wake when the bus stopped at _Port Authority_ in Manhattan to unload passengers and pick up new ones. Little did she realize that someone had taken the place of the other passenger sitting next to her or that the person taking the other passenger's place was someone she knew very well. Seeing her sleeping so soundly, the new passenger decided not to wake her and pulled out a magazine to read while waiting for Rory to wake up.

When the bus pulled into the station in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, Rory felt a tap on her shoulder and thought at first it was part of a dream and that she was still sleeping in her bedroom back in Stars Hollow. She started to open her eyes to yell at her mother for waking her and then almost became panic stricken when she looked around and saw she was on a bus and then became exceedingly confused when she realized the person waking her was Marty from Yale.

"**Marty!** What are you doing here?" she asked dazedly.

"Well, I guess the same thing you're doing here. Taking a bus to get somewhere. Only _my _somewhere is Philadelphia and you haven't been awake since we left New York, so I thought I'd better wake you up in case you're supposed to be getting off here in New Jersey."

"Oh, no, I'm… I'm going to Philadelphia, too," she replied, starting to feel more wide awake.

"You okay?" he asked. He'd been around enough of Rory's dramas at Yale to sense when something wasn't quite right with her. Which, as he recalled, was most of the time.

"I'm fine – I'm just – no I'm not fine. How much longer before we get to Philly?"

"Actually, we'll be arriving in about another half hour," he replied.

"Oh," Rory replied disappointedly. She'd wished she still had from the beginning of the bus ride to Philly to talk to Marty about her situation. Marty had one of the most sympathetic pair of ears she had ever talked to in her life. A half hour was nowhere nearly long enough to begin the conversation she needed to have with him about the topic she so desperately needed to discuss.

"Are you in a hurry to get some place when we get to Philly?" Marty asked sweetly, sensing what Rory was thinking.

"Umm… no," Rory answered brightly, hoping Marty was going to suggest they go some place and talk.

"Well, I actually came into town to see my sister, Monica, and she doesn't get off of work until 4:00, so that gives me like three hours to hang out and I could definitely use the company. They have lockers at the bus station if you have a lot of luggage to store and then we could walk over to _The Gallery_ shopping mall and grab a bite to eat."

"Oh, that's okay. I just have my purse and a light weight bag, so I won't need a locker at the station. The mall sounds great!" Rory agreed happily.

After they got off the bus, they walked over to _The Gallery_ and wandered over to the food court and grabbed a couple of well done slices of Sicilian style pizza with pepperoni and extra cheese and ordered 2 large Cherry Cokes to wash it down with and settled in cozily at their table, while Rory breathed a sigh of relief that she had the luxury of time on her side this afternoon. She was sure it was the last time she was going to feel like she had that luxury for a good, long while.

"Well, now, what can I help with you today, Miss Gilmore?" Marty asked cheerfully before taking a delicious bite out of his pepperoni covered pizza square.

Rory breathed in deeply before replying, being with Marty made her feel so safe.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai, Marty and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

* * *

Luke arrived at Jess' apartment about an hour after Rory got into Philly and was relieved Jess was alone in the apartment so he could talk to him in private, but nevertheless he was still a little worried about Rory not being there already.

"Where's Rory?" he asked.

"How the hell should I know? What are you with the US Census Bureau now or something?"

"Jess! I'm just a little concerned that she didn't get here ahead of me. Why don't you call her on your cell phone and check?"

"Can't."

"Why, not?"

"I only talk to people in my Fave 5 group at this hour of the day. I'm not wasting my rollover minutes," he answered unhelpfully, not wanting to tell Luke the real reason he didn't want to call Rory.

"Give me the fricking number then! Since you've just proven you're insane, _I'll_ call her!" Luke huffed impatiently.

"Knock yourself out, Nurse Ratched," Jess replied to Luke as he flashed him Rory's cell phone number on his phone directory list.

* * *

_**Meanwhile at The Gallery…**_

"Is that your cell phone ringing, Rory?" Marty asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Aren't you going to answer it?"

"Nah, I'll get it later. Besides, we're having much too good of a conversation and I don't want to lose my train of thought."

"It might be your mom, trying to see if you got here all right. Maybe you should check," Marty suggested with concern.

"Oh, Marty, you worry too much. I was on a bus all over the United States for over a year. She knows I can take care of myself," Rory responded nonchalantly.

"Well, you know her best. I just hope she isn't worried about you," Marty replied. "Want another Sicilian slice?"

"Sure," she smiled.

* * *

"Well, now I'm officially worried," Luke commented when there was no answer on Rory's cell phone. "She should have been here ahead of me and now she's not answering her cell phone."

"Relax, Grandpa," Jess advised, "she probably changed her mind and went to find her lover boy, Logan."

"What's gotten into you, Jess?" Luke asked, shaking his head incredulously.

"Nothing besides reality and good sense – you should give it a try sometime."

"Jess, I've never seen you give in this easily before. The Jess _I_ know would have told Rory's grandmother where to stick it and busted that blond playboy's head wide open. Why are you letting them get away with all this?"

"This isn't about me letting anyone get away with anything. I'm out to test Rory to see if she's ready to be my wife. And why are you so concerned about my personal life anyway? It's one o'clock sharp. Shouldn't you be frying up a basket of greasy onion rings or wiping down the counter with a filthy rag at this time of day?

"Jess, quit dodging my question and tell me why you're not fighting to keep Rory."

"I just got a hunch she might be using me as a way of escaping the real world."

"So what? The point is that you _love_ this woman. If she wants to use you to escape the real world, let her do it so you can have her."

"If you really bought into that philosophy, you would have married her mother a long time ago. If ever there was someone who wanted to get married to escape the real world, she'd be a prime candidate. I knew that lady was wack from the jump," Jess quipped.

"You leave Lorelai out of this discussion," Luke demanded angrily, coming to Lorelai's defense, "and if there is anyone who's nuts, it's _me_ for coming here today to try and help you," Luke huffed impatiently.

"I could have told you already you were nuts and saved you a trip here today," Jess replied, laughing at his own joke.

"I'm leaving! If Rory shows up, you have her call me!" Luke bellowed, slamming the door behind him.

After Luke stormed out, Jess poured himself a cup of strong coffee and lit a Marlboro Red. As he puffed away on the cigarette, he absorbed Luke's words while he digested the latest round of caffeine and nicotine he was putting into his body to relax himself while he was worked on a manuscript for _Truncheon Books_. He loved Rory so much, but there was nothing she was doing right now to make him feel any better about the doubts he was having about her. It would be so easy just to go ahead and marry her and "trap" her into being his wife, like Luke suggested before he left the apartment, but he wanted a wife who he knew loved him just as much as he loved her. If Rory could prove that she still really loved him, he'd change his mind, but that'd be the only way he'd reconsider going through with a marriage to her now.

* * *

_**Several Hours Later…**_

There was a light knock at Jess' front door around five in the afternoon and it was Rory.

"Where you been?" Jess asked with a stoic expression on his face.

"Oh, I just got into town and came right from the bus station," Rory lied.

"Huh!" Jess muttered for the eighty _sixth_ billion time. "My sources tell me you got on the bus at 7:30 this morning to come here. Cut the crap, Gilmore, and tell me where you've really been all this time!"

"Oh, my gosh! You're acting possessive – you're acting just like – just like _Dean_!" Rory shouted accusingly, thinking any reference to Dean would piss him off royally and throw him off the track of asking anymore questions about where she'd been all day.

"Dean… he was an amateur when it came to being possessive," Jess replied ironically.

"What are you talking about?" Rory yelled back, thrusting her hands on her hips.

"Look how easy I got you away from him… but, it looks like it's going to be just that easy for Logan to get you away from me, so I guess I shouldn't really be talking about old Deanie boy."

"Is that what you think? Give me my wedding dress so I can get outta here!" Rory screamed.

"My pleasure, Miss Havisham," he said as he handed her the garment, knowing she, of all people would instantly get the literary reference to the jilted old spinster character in Charles Dicken's novel, _Great Expectations, _who refused to take off her wedding dress for the rest of her life when she was left standing at the altar.

Rory snatched the gown from and then ran downstairs and called Marty on her cell phone to come get her.

"Marty, can you please come get me? I'm at the _Joshua House_ apartments over on Welsh Road; I'll be standing out front. Thank you so much, Marty, you're a life-saver."

Marty dutifully climbed into his sister Monica's green Toyota Camry to rescue Rory – again. "Always a friend, never a boyfriend," he muttered under his breath, wondering why Rory would rather try and please the guys she could never wrap around her finger more than the ones who she actually did wrap around her finger.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai, Marty and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

* * *

Marty showed up fifteen minutes later and picked Rory up in front of Jess' apartment building.

"Hungry?" he asked Rory as she climbed into the car with her stuff.

"I'm starving," Rory admitted.

"Well, you're in for a treat, my sister Monica's making Mexican food tonight and she said you're definitely welcome to join us for dinner and to spend the night."

"Oh, that sounds wonderful, Marty. Thank you for coming to rescue me. I don't know what I what I would have done if it hadn't been for you and your sister. Jess can be such a moody jerk. It's pretty scary to think I was almost going to marry him."

"Well… I guess you at least know where you stand as far at that goes and you don't have to worry about that decision anymore. Are you still planning on going to New York?"

"Damn straight!"

"That's good to hear. I live there now, you know."

"You do?"

"Yeah, that's where I caught the bus this morning… oh, that's right… you weren't awake when I got on. Anyway, I'm a Director there for a large non-profit organization that's involved with a lot of volunteer work and I live about three blocks away from my office, on the Upper West Side. You'd love the Upper West side, Rory, it's a beautiful area of Manhattan and there's a lot going on there. Maybe you should think about living near there, too. I have a great broker who could show you around and probably get you a good deal on a place."

"Well, I should probably check with Logan, I'm sure I'll want to live near where he lives," Rory replied frankly.

"Logan from Yale?" Marty asked incredulously, he thought he'd be spared from ever hearing that name again, let alone having to hear that they now occupied the same island.

"Yeah, he's gonna get me a job at the _New York Times_ and my grandmother thinks we should live near each other, but hey, I'm sure I'll get to see you around the city at least once in a while," Rory remarked, making it sound like to Marty that it would be a privilege to ever actually get to see her.

"Maybe we will, but my job and friends do keep me kind of busy, though" Marty responded, stopping short of saying something else he wanted to say in response to Rory's sophomoric remarks.

* * *

The next day Marty dropped Rory off at The Philadelphia Greyhound Bus Terminal bright and early so she could catch the first bus back to Hartford, after the way she'd rubbed Logan in his nose the night before, when he'd picked her up from Jess' and offered to try to help her out with a place to live in New York, he'd figure he didn't need to spend any more time with her than was necessary.

Coincidentally, Jess happened to be driving by as Marty was dropping Rory off and Jess had to do a double-take, from a distance, when he thought Marty was Dean.

"Ah, geez!" he muttered out loud to himself. "Is that do-goody Frankenstein coming here to rescue Rory? What's he doing here? He must be on his third marriage by now. – " then Jess took a closer look and realized it wasn't Dean, after all. _Well… well… well…add another number to this Sudoku puzzle. Who the hell is that now?_ he thought and his curiosity finally got the better of him as he pulled into the station to catch up with Marty.

"Hey, weren't you just dropping off Rory Gilmore?" Jess called out from his car.

"Yeah, I… Are you Jess?" Marty asked, quickly getting that it couldn't be possibly be anyone else in Philadelphia asking about Rory.

"Guilty," Jess answered flatly.

"Nice to meet you, name's Marty," he said cordially. "I knew Rory at Yale and I just dropped her off here so she could catch the bus back to Hartford."

"You must be relieved," Jess replied sarcastically.

Marty started laughing at Jess' remark. He'd been somewhat taken in by Rory's declaration that Jess was a moody jerk, but so far he seemed like an okay guy from what he could see.

"Well, I hate to admit it, but I _am_ relieved," Marty replied, still laughing.

"I guess we're starting to block traffic over here, and I'm actually on my way to join some buds from my publishing company for brunch at a restaurant over near Washington Square. You're welcome to join us," Jess offered.

Marty found the opportunity to talk to Jess about Rory very intriguing so he quickly accepted the invitation. "Sounds good, Jess!"

"Follow me," Jess instructed as he pulled out of the parking lot and drove over to the _Silk City Diner_.

As they walked into the kitschy 50s style diner, Marty cast an amused glance around the restaurant, this place definitely did not look like the type of place he pictured Jess hanging out at.

Jess caught Marty's expression out of the corner of his eye, "Don't let the diner atmosphere fool you. They serve some of the best food in the city and they have music acts here on Friday and Saturday nights that are totally off the charts."

The three friends from _Truncheon Books_ that Jess was meeting for brunch had already arrived ahead of him and were waiting for him at a large booth in the corner of the diner.

"Hey everybody, sorry I'm late," Jess announced as he and Marty joined them at the table. "This is Marty, he's a friend of a friend of mine. Marty, this is Amber, Adam and Nick. We all work together at my little publishing company called _Truncheon Books_ and we get together every Saturday morning to blow off the shit that got on us during the work week."

"Hey, Marty," Amber said, immediately extending her hand. "Jess ,where you been hiding this guy? He's **hot**!" Amber declared playfully.

Marty thoroughly enjoyed receiving Amber's compliment. She was a gorgeous woman with silky blond hair that cascaded down to the middle of her back, and she had deep, golden caramel colored eyes that perfectly matched the color of the stone that she was named for.

"Settle down, Amber and keep a sweater on your imagination," Jess said, pretending to scold her for coming onto Marty.

"Nice to meet you, too, Amber," Marty chuckled warmly.

"Hey, Jess, should we get a pitcher of Bloody Marys?" Nick asked.

"Nick, you ask the same fu****** question every time we come here. Just order the damn pitcher of Bloody Marys and quit asking me," Jess grumbled impatiently before he turned to Marty to resume the conversation they'd started at the bus station.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Luke, Lorelai, Marty, Logan and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

_

* * *

_

"So did you go out with Rory when you two went to Yale?" Jess asked Marty pointedly.

"Wow! Don't worry – no. Don't get me wrong, I _wanted _to be date Rory, but with Logan's deep pockets and big man status on campus, I didn't stand a chance."

"I'm not worried. I was just curious. You remind me a lot of Rory's first boyfriend."

"Oh, yeah? Who was that?"

"Dean Forrester. He lives in Stars Hollow."

"How do I remind you of him?" Marty asked, growing curious himself now.

"You kind of look like him. You're very nice like he was. About the only difference I can see between you two is that you're about ten times smarter than him, but other than that, you're pretty much his twin."

"Why'd he and Rory break up?"

"Rory finds nice guys boring. She's always looking for the cool guys that remind her of her absentee father and I happened to show up at the right time to make her life very interesting and take her away from him. We actually had a pretty thing going until I had to take off to go live with my dad for a while in California."

"I guess I already figured out Rory finds nice guys boring, but you're definitely not boring by a long shot. Why would she want to be with an airheaded player like Logan Huntzberger when she could be with you?"

"By the time I came back from California, she'd already been poisoned by those moronic grandparents of hers and I guess she wanted to get herself a Richie Rich by then, so even my deep, dark persona couldn't satisfy her anymore."

"So whatever happened to that Dean guy?" Marty asked, almost sympathetically, just imagining what it must have been like for him when Rory dumped him for Jess, especially if he was as nice as Jess described him.

"Oh, that's a _lonnnggg _story, we'd be here 'til dinner if I told you _his_ life story, but at least we're on good terms now," Jess said frankly.

"You're kidding!" Marty replied, half-laughingly.

"No, I'm not," Jess replied sincerely. "He finally got his act together and has his own construction business now. We hooked up as friends about a year ago when he did some renovation work for one of my uncle Luke's friends at a place in town called _Sniffy's Tavern."_

"_Sniffy's Tavern?"_ Marty laughed.

"Yeah, well, Stars Hollow is the capital of the land of weirdoes and wackos. I gotta go there tomorrow to sort something out with my uncle Luke. You can ride along if you want to see for yourself what a bizarre place Rory grew up in and who knows, maybe you'll meet Dean and the two of you can have a nice long chat about Ms. Gilmore."

"Sure, I'll ride along with you. You make this place sound like an amusement park. I gotta go there at least once in my life," Marty responded as their waitress appeared with a pitcher of Bloody Marys and started taking everyone's brunch orders.

"Once is usually too much for most people," Jess replied as he took his first slurp of Bloody Mary.

* * *

_**That Afternoon, Back in** _**_the Land of Weirdoes and Wackos…_ **

"I'm home!" Rory called out cheerfully as she came through the front door, only to find the house empty when she entered it.

"Oh…" Rory sighed disappointedly when Lorelai wasn't there to answer her back. She set her things down on the sofa and focused on the pink garment bag that was wrapped around the wedding gown from "Fashion Flashbacks." _Should I dare try it on?_ she thought. At first she thought there'd be no reason in the world to try it on, but the more she thought about, the more it made sense. After all, it looked like there was going to be a chance her and Logan were going to be getting married, so why not?

She took the garment bag in her room and slipped into the gown, completing the fantasy by putting up her hair and trying on some pearl chandelier earrings that Dean had given her on their first anniversary. She applied a final touch of smoky eyeliner and Rosy Hibiscus lip gloss and stepped into the foyer to glance at herself in the full length mirror.

Just then, she heard the knob on the front door turn and before she had a chance to turn and run back into her bedroom, she found herself face to face with Lorelai and Luke.

"Oh, hi, Rory, you look beautiful – absolutely beautiful. This must mean you and Jess worked everything out. Congratulations, honey!" Luke said warmly, hugging Rory close to him and getting teary-eyed.

"Luke, you might want to hold off on the champagne toast for a just a minute, hon," Lorelai said, trying to calm him down. "Rory, honey, please join mommy in your bedroom so we can discuss this in private. Luke, would you take Paul Anka for his walk immediately, before his kidneys start begging me for a life preserver?"

Rory headed towards her bedroom and Lorelai followed her in, closing the door behind her.

"Rory, sweetie, I could tell by the look in your eyes when I came home that you and Jess have no longer have plans to marry each other and here you are playing Bridezilla. You wanta tell me what's going on?"

"Okay! Okay! I'm NOT marrying Jess. I don't know how you figured that out without me telling you, but that's you. You've always been the biggest know it all I've ever known in my life. It just so happens I'm planning on marrying Logan."

"_Logan_ asked you to marry him again?" Lorelai asked skeptically.

"No, Logan didn't ask me to marry him again, but I know he will once I move to New York," Rory replied tersely.

"Uh-huh…. Have you been playing with your Magic 8-ball again? Cause I know when _I _shake it and shake it, I can usually get it to give me the answer I want, too.

"No, I haven't been playing with my Magic 8-ball," Rory replied whiningly. "I just know Logan is crazy about me, that's all. Why else would he leave California to come back here?"

"Are you sure it's Logan who's the crazy one here?"

"You always have to have a comeback, don't you, Snappy? Well you and Crackle and Pop won't have to worry about me anymore. I'm going to Lane and Zack's tonight and then I'll just stay in the pool house at Grandma's and Grandpa's until I'm ready to move to New York!"

"Don't forget to pack your rotten puns and take 'em with you for Grandpa to play with," Lorelai called out jokingly after Rory slammed her bedroom door behind her.

**TO BE CONTINUED…. **


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai, Marty, Dean and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended._

* * *

Jess and Marty rolled into Stars Hollow around noon the next day**. **When they arrived, they found the village festooned with Thanksgiving decorations from one end of the town square to the other and a large banner hanging overhead that read "Welcome To Stars Hollow's First Annual Thanksgiving Festival."

"Well, Marty, looks like you're going to get the full Stars Hollow treatment today, " Jess commented dryly as they drove through the street and spotted Kirk as a bare-chested Indian chief, trying to hand out baby turkey chicks, courtesy of Doose's market, to the crowd, but no one would take them because they thought they were too ugly.

Next they saw Miss Patty, dressed like a jumbo-sized Mayflower Madam, directing her students in a Pilgrim hip-hop dance down at the town gazebo, while Taylor, stood in front of the gazebo, and barked at everyone through his megaphone to stay away from the "cranberry bog," which was really an extra large, inflatable pool filled with cranberries and water.

Then Babette came walking by, sporting a Cornucopia hat and a tight t-shirt with a slogan that read "I'm Thankful for My Stuffing." She was busy staring at Miss Patty's dancers and wasn't watching where she was going, and fell head first into the pool, puncturing a large gash in it with her hat, sending water and cranberries flooding through the town square to the delight of everyone except Taylor, who was threatening to cancel the pumpkin bobbing contest because Babette had ignored his orders to stay away from the bog.

Jess drove on, expressionless, despite all the humorous escapades that were taking place all around them.

Marty couldn't help it, though, and lost it the minute Babette fell into the kiddie pool and he let out a roar of laughter. "I don't know how you manage to keep such a straight face, Jess," Marty said, choking between snickers.

"It isn't polite to laugh at the clinically insane," Jess deadpanned in response, which only made Marty laugh even harder.

They drove up the street to Weston's bakery and Jess parked the car out front. "Just a minute, Marty, I'll be right back. I want to see if Dean's here today."

"Sure, Jess, no problem," Marty replied.

Jess came back a few minutes later and told Marty that Dean was inside and that he'd take him in to introduce him, but that he needed to leave for a while to go talk to Luke privately about a family matter.

Jess and Marty walked inside and Marty went over to order himself a large latte and a chocolate croissant to bring over to the table while he chatted with Dean. He wished the line would move a little more quickly, he felt like he was holding Jess up. It was finally his turn, he quickly paid for his order and went over to the table Jess and Dean were sitting at.

"Marty, this is Dean Forrester, him and I used to date Rory when she was in high school and Dean, Marty never dated Rory, but got to hang out with her at Yale. I think that catches everybody up. If you two will excuse me, I need to go to my uncle Luke's diner for awhile. I'll swing back by here in a couple of hours after I finish up at Luke's."

"See ya, Jess," Dean replied. "Nice to meet you, Marty," Dean said, extending his hand.

"You, too, Dean. You'll have to excuse me, though. Right about now I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone," Marty commented.

"Stars Hollow can definitely have that affect on you, especially on these loony festival days."

"Oh, it's not just that. I haven't seen Rory in almost a couple of years and to tell you the truth I thought I'd never see her again after I graduated from Yale, and in the past 48 hours, I've ridden on a bus with her to Philadelphia, met her ex-boyfriend and now here I am in her hometown talking to a guy who Jess calls my twin."

"He called you my twin?" Dean laughed.

"Yeah, he said we sort of looked alike and that we were both nice guys."

"What else did he say?" Dean asked, cocking his eyebrow, knowing whatever it was, was probably going to make him laugh. He and Jess had buried the hatchet and he'd started finding the asinine things he said to be pretty funny.

"He asked me if I'd ever gone out with Rory when we went to Yale and I told him that she turned me down for that stupid jerk Logan and he said that Rory thinks nice guys are boring and that's probably why she wanted to go out with Logan instead of me."

"That sounds like something Jess would say, he's definitely not one to beat around the bush. And he should know - since he used to be a jerk himself and the same thing happened to me when Rory and I were dating."

"Well, at least you got to date her for a while," Marty said wistfully.

"It isn't any better when you love someone as much as I loved Rory to have them and then lose them. It's almost better not to have even known them in the first place."

"So how did you ever become friends with Jess after he took Rory away from you?"

"Wasn't easy, but we keep bumping into each other at my construction job last year and when he told me about Rory blowing him off for that same Logan guy that she blew you off for, we sorta connected because he finally understood what he'd put me through and I guess since Logan came in between Rory and both of you, he probably feels a connection with you too, now."

"Hmm… yeah… from what I hear, Rory's blowing him off again for Logan," Marty commented with concern in his voice.

"So what exactly was this Logan guy like?" Dean asked.

"He was probably the richest kid on campus and he let everybody know it. I'm thinking that's how Rory got sucked in by him."

"Wow," Dean replied, sounding shocked, "that kind of thing never used to impress her. I know her mother definitely didn't raise her to think that way."

"Yeah, well, Jess thinks her grandparents had something to do with her change in attitude."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Rory thought she was doing a good thing once by inviting me over to their mansion right after we started going out with each other and her grandfather pretty much told me I was a piece of shit because I didn't come from a rich family."

"Ouch!" Marty said, picturing himself in Dean's shoes.

"Tell me about it," Dean replied. "But I guess all that stuff doesn't matter so much anymore. I'm at a really good place in my life now. I own my own business and I'm getting back together with my ex-wife. We were only nineteen when we got married the first time and we weren't ready for that kind of relationship, BUT we were in love, so now we're taking it nice and slow and we're both committed to making sure it works this time around."

"Wow! Married at nineteen – I can't even imagine being married at…." Marty promptly ended his comment, realizing that Dean had gotten married on the rebound from Rory.

"Well, I wish I'd waited, but I'm glad I'm getting a second chance with her. So where do you live, Marty?" Dean asked, changing the subject. He bitterly recalled the affair him and Rory had while he was still married to Lindsay and he didn't want any more questions from Marty about that whole dark episode in his life.

"I'm living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It's great, really. I'm right off of Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River, and I can look out my bedroom window and see New Jersey on the other side of the river. No big deal, I just never thought about living in a place where I could see two states at once. I'm living in a studio apartment right now, but I'll be moving into a one bedroom in a couple of months. You and your girlfriend are welcome to come down for a visit after I get moved into my new place. I think you two would really love the neighborhood around there, it's block after block of gorgeous brownstones on tree-lined streets and I could give you a tour of the rest of the city, too."

"That sounds great," Dean agreed. "I think Lindsay would really enjoy that. I know I would. I'm originally from Chicago and sometimes I wish we'd never left. I really miss living in a city. Uh… can you give me a second? I think I hear my cell phone ringing…"

"Sure, go ahead," Marty replied.

"Yeah," Dean said as he answered the phone, "okay Jess, we'll meet you there."

"Everything okay?" Marty asked.

"Jess is tied up over at his uncle Luke's diner and he wants us to meet him over there now," Dean replied.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai, Marty, Dean, Logan and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended_

* * *

"Come on Marty, my truck's out front, but we might as well walk. The diner's not too far from here and it might not be too easy to find a place to park with this festival going on right now," Dean said.

"It was well worth it to come here today just to see all these town characters running around," Marty commented, laughingly. "I thought I was going to lose it earlier when I saw that fat blond lady fall flat on her face in that pool full of cranberries."

"Sounds like you're talking about Babette. She's good friends with the dance teacher. They make it their life's work to know everybody's business in town."

"Dance teacher? You mean that blimpo who was out there just now with the dancing pilgrims?"

"Yep, that's the infamous Miss Patty. Oh, shit, speaking of which – here she comes now. I am so not in the moody to talk to her – not that I ever am."

"Why not?" Marty laughed, thinking she was probably harmless.

"_You'll_ see," Dean replied, not saying another word, intentionally not warning him about Miss Patty's shameless flirting with younger men, especially newcomers.

"Well…well..well," Miss Patty greeted as Dean and Marty started approaching in her direction. "Dean, shame on you for not mentioning you had such a nice looking brother, you naughty boy."

"He's actually not my –"

"Hello… Hello… I'm Miss Patty," she said, cutting Dean off and grabbing Marty's hand to kiss it. "If I was 20 years younger, I'd eat you for breakfast you look so delicious, handsome."

Marty fought the temptation to tell Miss Patty that must have been what she'd done with all her other boyfriends over the past 20 years since she was such a huge cow and instead came back with a mild, "well, I guess that would have been interesting."

"Interesting? Oh, it would have been MUCH more than interesting. It's such a shame you didn't know me know when I was a cabaret dancer, we could have had some really good sex," she observed regretfully.

Marty waited until Miss Patty waddled out of earshot and starting laughing, "Thanks a lot for letting me know that was coming, Dean."

"You wouldn't have believed me anyway, you had to experience it for yourself and it least it took the pressure off of her flirting with me for a change," Dean laughed.

When they reached the diner, Jess was leaning against the front window, inhaling a cigarette. As soon as he spotted Marty and Dean, he stopped them for a talk before they went inside.

"Guys, I need your help with something, Rory's here and she's pretty upset."

"Upset about what?" Marty asked.

"Logan played Rory pretty bad," Jess answered.

"What'd he do to her?" Dean asked.

"He lied to her about bringing her to New York to get her a job at the _Times._ Turns out he didn't really have a job at the paper and he's actually back in California now. She's inside with Luke now and he's trying to calm her down."

"Why isn't she at home with Lorelai? Lorelai's not just her mother, she's her best friend, too," Dean asked rhetorically.

"They had a fight last night. She spent the night at Lane's and she was going to go over to her grandmother's house to stay today and she tried to call Logan this morning to let him know and he told her he was back in California and that he'd just come home for a short visit and had told her about the job on the paper just to get her back for turning down his marriage proposal after she graduated."

"Wow, that's messed up," Dean commented.

"Sounds like the Logan I know and hate," Marty remarked.

"Well, we can stand around here all day discussing what an a****** Logan is or we can get in there and try to help Rory out."

"I'd be happy to try to make her feel better, Jess, but don't you think you're the man for the job?" Dean asked.

"Why do you say that, Forester?" Jess asked brusquely.

"Cause you're the only man she was ever really in love with," Dean commented. "If she would have loved Logan, she would have jumped on his marriage proposal in a second when he asked him to marry her right of college. I think the real reason she didn't leave Logan to be with you again when she was at Yale is because she felt guilty about how her and I broke up when you guys started dating. I also think she's the only woman _you've_ ever loved and if you don't ask her to marry you, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life."

"Dean's right, Jess," Marty agreed. "I wish I could be in your shoes and have a shot with Rory, but you're the one who's right for her."

"What do you want me to?" Jess asked pridefully, "Go in there and beg her to take me back on my hands and knees?"

"If that's what it takes," Lorelai responded, materializing out of thin air.

"Hi, Lorelai," Dean said, smiling in her direction.

"Wow, I didn't plan on seeing the Collector's Set of Rory Gilmore's Men here today. Hi Dean, Hi Jess, Hi Naked Guy," Lorelai said playfully to Marty, remembering he was the one who had fallen asleep nude in the hallway after a keg party at Yale.

"Naked Guy?" Jess asked, suddenly growing suspicious of Marty. "I thought you told me you and Rory never went out?"

"Nope, they didn't, I can _guarantee _you that" Lorelai answered before Marty could. "Why don't you tell Jess why I nicknamed you Naked Guy, while I go see what's wrong with my daughter," Lorelai said just as soon as she spotted her draped over the counter inside, crying her eyes out.

"Uh, Lorelai, Jess knows all about what's bothering Rory. He could tell you before you go in there, if that makes it any easier," Dean suggested.

"Oh, no, that's okay, hon. I figure I'll just go straight to the source and ask her myself," Lorelai responded.

"Rory, sweetie, what's wrong?" Lorelai asked as she draped her arms around her. "Is this about Logan?" Lorelai asked, guessing correctly.

"Mmm…hmmm," Rory answered between tears. "He-he-he told me he's back in California and that there was no job at the paper he could get me and that he just made the whole thing up to get me back for not marrying him. Then he said 'Revenge is a dish best served cold, Ace' and then he hung up."

"Wow, he's just as bad as that father of his. I can't believe my own mother tried to get the two of you back together again. Wait 'til I see her," Lorelai seethed.

"It's okay, Mom, she didn't know that Logan was trying to get even with me. I know you hate her sometimes for trying to push us together, but she means well," Rory remarked.

"She means well only when it means well for, too," Lorelai countered. "Well, I always suspected Logan was no good. Being the offspring of Mitchum Huntzberger, it was pretty hard not for some of that rottenness to rub off him eventually. But, hey, you know what?"

"What?"

"There's three great guys outside, right now, who think you're terrific and are very worried about you. I wish I had three guys in this world that cared about _me _like that. I'm so jealous of you, Ms. Gilmore," Lorelai said, trying to make Rory feel better about what Logan had done to her.

"_Three?" _Rory asked with surprise, she'd knew Jess was out there, but she didn't realize anyone else was, and then she swiveled her stool around and saw Dean and Marty standing outside with him. "What are Dean and Marty doing out there with Jess?" Rory asked in amazement.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai, Marty and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. _

* * *

Rory continued to stare at Marty, Dean and Jess in disbelief. She couldn't understand what the three of them were possibly doing together. As far as she knew, Jess and Dean were lifelong enemies and she'd never introduced Marty to either Dean or Jess. The more she stared at them, the more suspicious she grew of them being together. She was starting to think Logan had put them up to coming over here as part of a plot to seek further revenge against her.

Maybe he wanted these three guys to get together and gang up on her to tell her why they had a reason to get even with her, too. After all, she'd dumped Dean to be with Jess, she'd rejected Jess when he wanted to get back together with her after she came to see him at the grand opening of Truncheon Books, even though Logan had just cheated on her … and Marty… poor sweet Marty, who had been her faithful security blanket during her first few months at Yale, but when he'd finally gotten the courage to tell her he liked her, she'd shot him down because she wanted a man like Logan instead because she thought he could make her time at Yale more exciting than Marty ever could and that was what she figured was important – until now.

And as much as she regretted those unfortunate events with each of these guys through the years, none of them came as close to being as bad as what she had recently done to Jess, suggesting they get married and then practically forcing him to get angry so she'd have an "excuse" to run away from him and go to New York to have a career at the _Times_ and be with Logan again. She saw absolutely no way to wiggle out of what she'd done to him and she didn't expect him to ever forgive her.

"Euro for your thoughts," Lorelai said to Rory, but Rory was so worried about what she was going to say to Dean, Jess, or Marty, that she didn't answer her.

"On today's episode of 'This Is Your Life,' we'll be featuring Rory Leigh Gilmore and our three special guests, who have traveled a long, long way to honor her. Ms. Gilmore, won't you join me in welcoming your guests to our studio here at Luke Dane's fantabulous diner located in gorgeous Stars Hollowood?" Lorelai joked, hoping to humor Rory into finally saying something back to her.

"Sheesh," Luke piped in impatiently. "She doesn't need your sorry attempts at humor to feel better. Could you please just ask them to come in here without all this absurd fanfare?"

"Since when are fans fair?" Lorelai shot back.

"We already serve enough corn in this diner. You don't need to bring us anymore when you come in here."

"Well, you can't expect me not to have come back when you use an out-of-date word like fanfare."

"Would you two just be quiet?" Rory screamed angrily. "I don't want to talk to any of them! Luke, do you mind if I go upstairs?"

"Nah, honey, go on ahead," he replied sympathetically.

"Let me go talk to the guys," Lorelai suggested while Rory stormed upstairs to Luke's apartment. "We'll have them come in and you make them some cheeseburgers and I'll try to get Rory to change her mind about talking to them. Rory can't see it, but I think having these three good looking guys come by and visit her after Logan hurt her could probably make her feel better than she realizes," Lorelai commented with motherly wisdom.

"Hey guys, come on in, Luke's gonna make you some chili cheeseburgers while Rory goes upstairs to freshen up and then she'll be coming down in a few to join you," Lorelai said, ushering them in.

Lorelai got the guys settled at the counter and Luke threw the beef patties on the grill to start making the burgers. Luckily, everyone else was at the Thanksgiving Festival, so they had the restaurant all to themselves. Lorelai excused herself and went upstairs to check on Rory.

"Rory, honey, I know Logan really hurt you today, but I think you need to go downstairs and speak to your friends. Turning them away isn't going to make you feel any better, but if you talk to them and let them comfort you, there's a good chance that you will start feeling better."

"Mom, you don't understand… I've treated all of those guys downstairs just as bad as Logan's treated me, especially Jess. We were supposed to get married until –"

"Until my stupid mother and Logan came in the diner and filled your head with things they thought you wanted to hear. I still would like to know how they happened to track you down that day. Well… how do you feel about Jess now?"

"I LOVE him!" Rory declared.

"Do you think you would have known _how_ much you loved him if all this hadn't happened?"

"Umm... probably not," Rory replied truthfully.

"Well, there you go. I think all of this was meant to happen for a reason. Sometimes when we get what we want too easily we devalue it and take it for granted. Now that you know without a doubt in your heart how special Jess is to you, no one will ever be able to talk you into risking losing him again - including you."

"But, Mom... I don't think Jess is going to want me back when I practically threw him over for Logan," Rory replied despairingly.

"I know Jess and I have never been the best of friends, but even if he's mad at you about that now, I know he'll forgive you. I've never heard Luke mention any other girl Jess has been serious about except you," Lorelai said, trying to reassure Rory, but the comment she overheard him say when she first saw him outside the diner was still fresh on her mind, so she figured she'd better get downstairs to see what kind of mood Jess was really in before she sent Rory down to talk to him.

"Rory, honey, why don't you rest for a little bit? Luke's feeding everybody downstairs and after they've eaten, I'll come back up and see if you're ready to come down yet."

"Okay," she replied as she curled up to take a little nap on the bed that used to belong to Jess when he lived with Luke.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Emily, Luke, Lorelai, Dean, Marty and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. _

* * *

When Lorelai came back down stairs, she saw Luke at one of the tables pouring coffee into mugs for a young, preppy couple who had wandered in from the festival. Dean and Marty were standing at the window laughing at Taylor, who was terrorizing Kirk for screwing up because he was supposed to get miniature pumpkins for the pumpkin bobbing contest and he'd brought a case of full sized ones for the contest, instead. Kirk hung his head low in shame, recalling he hadn't pissed off Taylor this much since the Great Easter Egg Hunt Fiasco of 2004, when he'd forgotten to make a map of where he'd hidden the eggs and stunk up the town square for days.

Lorelai noted that Jess had crawled off into a corner, wearing that usual, sullen look on his face, with his nose buried deep in a book.

"Stars Hollow is like Mayberry on an LSD trip," Marty commented between laughs while he continued to watch the antics of Taylor and Kirk. By now, the baby turkeys had begun circling Kirk as if they were trying to protect him from Taylor.

"Oh, there's an original comment that I'm sure no other out-of-towner has ever uttered when they came to visit this insane asylum," Jess replied sarcastically, without even bothering to look up.

"Oh come on, Jess, you have to admit it's at least little bit funny," Lorelai said, trying to give Marty some credit for his sense of humor and hoping to lighten Jess' mood.

"Nope, can't admit something I don't believe myself," Jess replied tersely.

"Well… " Lorelai sighed before she continued, knowing now Jess was definitely not in a great mood, but deciding to ask her question anyway, for Rory's sake, "can you admit that you and Rory belong back together?"

"Nope, can't admit something I don't believe myself," Jess replied in an even terser voice.

"Uh… huh…" Lorelai replied as she scanned her brain for a follow-up to his comment. She was starting to feel like she did the night she'd invited Jess and Luke to her house to have a party for Jess to welcome him to Stars Hollow. He'd been rude and bitter that night too, and no amount of reasoning had worked with him that evening and she suspected it wouldn't work with him right now either and was just about to give up when Luke, who had been standing there watching the exchange between the two of them, had finally had enough of Jess' antics and walked over to Jess' table and knocked the Kerouac poetry book he was reading out of his hands so hard, that he sent it flying through the plate glass window and outside the restaurant, hitting Taylor in the stomach hard as it went sailing through the air. The crowd outside, who'd been standing around watching Taylor scold Kirk for the past twenty minutes about the pumpkins, broke out into applause, glad that'd he gotten a taste of what he deserved for treating Kirk like crap.

"There!" Luke screamed. "You don't have to worry about that stupid book anymore, now you can talk to Lorelai like a human being – or at least I _think_ you can."

"Uh… well first off, Jess, I'm sorry Luke threw your book into the street," Lorelai commented, she wanted to laugh about it hitting Taylor in the stomach, but she put that urge on ice for her and Luke's alone time. "I really didn't want that to happen, but what I did want to happen is that you and Rory try to work out your differences. I really think you two belong together. I would hope coming from me that would mean a lot, considering our past history hasn't always been the greatest."

"Let me ask you something," Jess said, finally looking up.

"Ask away," Lorelai responded, knowing that Jess' trademark antagonism was getting ready to bubble up like a volcano.

"Look around this restaurant. Do you recall Rory's track record with me and Dean and Marty? She never wanted to have a lasting relationship with any of us and I heard she turned down Logan when he asked her to marry him. I don't know if Rory could ever really be in love with me or _any_ man since she probably has a lot of unresolved issues with her father since he was never around when she really needed him. Plus, what is it that makes you think Rory finds me any more special than these guys or Logan or any of the other guys she dated that I don't know about?"

"I can answer that question, myself, Jess," Rory called out from the bottom of the stairs.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Luke, Lorelai, Dean, Marty and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB.  
_

_**In the last chapter, Logan lied to Rory about getting her a job at the New York Times to get even with for turning down his marriage proposal and Lorelai tries to get Jess to reconcile with Rory. Jess reminds Lorelai of Rory's track record with her boyfriends and asks her why she thinks Rory would consider him any more special than any of the other men she dated and before she can answer him, Rory walks into the room and announces she'll give him the answer to that question herself.**_

* * *

"Enlighten me," Jess replied to Rory without blinking an eye.

"Umm, Jess … don't you think we should take this upstairs so we could have a little privacy?" Rory asked nervously.

"No, I don't think so. I think your answer involves these nice gentlemen here to some degree and I think they'd be curious to hear how you're going to answer the question I just asked your mother."

"Guys?" Rory said, looking directly at Dean and Marty, hoping to intimidate them into leaving the diner to give her and Jess some privacy.

"I think, Jess is right," Dean responded as he grabbed a chair and plopped down at the table. "How 'bout you, Marty? Wanta see what Rory has to say?"

"Sure," Marty replied, joining Dean and Jess at the table. Had Dean not taken the initiative to sit at Jess' table, he probably would have been intimidated enough by Rory's stare to leave the restaurant, but since Dean was staying, he decided he would, too.

"Okay, well, it's hard enough to have this conversation with Jess, let alone with you two here, but I'll try," Rory agreed hesitantly.

"I'm waiting to hear your answer, Gilmore," Jess said abruptly, "I haven't got all minute."

Rory decided she was going to take her time to answer thoughtfully and not allow Jess her to rush her, so she took a few moments before she started to speak.

"Jess, I know I've probably done a lousy job of making you think you're special to me, but you have to understand what I went through in my life after you went away to California before you jump to conclusions."

"Spare me your ancient history highlights," Jess retorted in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Jess, please don't interrupt," Rory pleaded. "What I'm saying is still relevant to your question. I loved you so much, but you snuck away at a very pivotal moment in my life. I needed you so much and all of the sudden you just vanished. That's okay, I know you had your reasons and I'm sure most of them were good ones, but I had no choice but to move on and keep going with my life. I wasn't living at home anymore, I hardly ever saw Lane and I had to adapt to a new school and new people and even an even harder load of courses at school. If you would have kept in touch with me when you left, I would have never looked at any other guy while I was at Yale, but you didn't, so I got very lonely and when I met Logan, he opened up a whole new world for me at college. He introduced me to a lot of new friends and he brought a lot of fun in my life and I'll always be able to look back at that those years and treasure those memories and be glad that I wasn't just spending my time at college with my head in my books or buried under my assignments at _The Yale Daily News." _

"Marty, I hope you don't think I wasn't grateful for you being there for me when I first got to Yale. You were my life saver in so many ways and maybe if the circumstances were different, you and I would have dated, but I think I gravitated to Logan because I'm a very shy person by nature and since Logan was so popular, I knew he could open a lot of doors at Yale for me socially.

"And Jess... if you want to find fault with me because I didn't drop Logan when you came back to visit me in Hartford or when I came to see you in Philadelphia, well, let's just say I'd already dumped a terrific boyfriend to be with you and that back fired on me in a major way because you left me during my most important time in high school. Plus, even though I knew in my heart you were the better guy for me, I didn't want to punish Logan since he _had_ been there for me all those years at Yale when I needed his love and support. Also…I didn't want Dean around to have to hear this, because I don't want him to get upset when I say this, but if I hadn't met you, I'm pretty positive Dean and I would have ended up getting married, so if you want to question how special you are to me and if that isn't enough proof, then I don't think anything would be," Rory announced determinedly and rose to leave the table.

Jess absorbed Rory's words very carefully after she spoke. He'd always thought Rory saw Dean as just some loser when she dumped him back in high school so they could be together. He'd never realized how much Dean had meant to her and that she had almost considered it a sacrifice to give him up and suddenly he did feel like he _was_ the most precious man in Rory's life before he recalled that she'd come very close to going to New York to be with Logan. He wondered if he should press her about going to New York and then suddenly he realized that circumstance after circumstance had prevailed in their lives over the past seven years that had pulled them apart over and over again, so at last he decided to swallow his pride so he could finally be with the only woman he ever respected enough to love and he made up his mind that nothing would ever keep them apart again.

"Hey!" Jess yelled at her as she walked away.

"What!" she yelled back.

"You still got that stupid wedding dress?"

"Yes, I still have that stupid wedding dress," she answered, not sure where this question was leading to.

"Well, why don't we put it to good use and get married then?" Jess suggested.

Rory turned on her heel and ran back to Jess, throwing her arms around him. "When do you want to get married?" she asked excitedly.

"How 'bout next Saturday, right here at the diner?" Jess asked.

"Oh, I would love it if we got married here at the diner," Rory agreed, recalling all the happy memories she'd had in this restaurant since she was a little girl, including the ones of her and Jess.

"This calls for a celebration," Dean said weakly, still trying to recover from Rory's admission that she would have married him if she hadn't met Jess.

"Where do you guys want to go?" Jess asked, beaming from ear to ear, finally not caring that people would think he was uncool if he looked too happy.

"Why don't we head over to Sniffy's Tavern?" Marty suggested.

"Oooh! Sniffy's Tavern! That's where Luke and I had our first date. Can we come with you and celebrate?" Lorelai asked excitedly.

"Sure, we'd be glad to have you two come along," Jess replied cheerfully, without the slightest hint of sarcasm.

Lorelai and Rory both did a double-take, never expecting Jess to act this nice or happy. Lorelai began to suspect that Jess' attitude was going to improve big time once he and Rory were married and that was just fine with her.

"You all go on ahead, I can't leave the diner right now," Luke said, wishing he could go too.

"Oh, come on," Lorelai said, "that festival is going to be going on all night and they're serving up turkey with the fixings out there in a little while. It won't matter if you go ahead and close up the diner now."

"Well… okay, let's all go celebrate then," Luke declared happily, glad that Lorelai convinced him to come along.

"Sniffy's used to be a whore house," Lorelai announced to everyone as they started to leave, recalling that little tidbit from the owner's wife when her and Luke went to visit the restaurant on their first date.

"Oh, that's not true," Luke replied. "Why do you always tell that story?"

"Cause I used to see you hanging out in the parking lot looking for hookers."

"I was looking for you," Luke deadpanned.

"Well, I must have been with a customer."

"This routine of ours is not going to win any comedy awards, just go get in my truck, please," Luke said to Lorelai because he'd run out of comebacks. "First and last round of drinks are on me," Luke announced as everybody started heading to their vehicles.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

**** Something Borrowed ****

**Genre**: Romance  
**Pairing**: Rory/Jess  
**Rating**: K+  
**Disclaimer**: _Rory, Jess, Luke, Lorelai, Liz, TJ, Kirk, Miss Patty, Babette, Taylor and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. _

* * *

_**This is the final chapter of "Something Borrowed." I'd like to close out this story by thanking TL22, Jeremy Shane, Kylielink, Emma-and-Eadric Forever and Agent 1332 for their feedback and encouragement.

* * *

**_Jess and Rory were getting married at the diner on the Saturday that fell right after Thanksgiving Day. Luke had hung up quite a few holiday decorations in the diner during the week for Thanksgiving and Rory asked him to keep them up for the wedding because she thought it would make for a more festive atmosphere than using a traditional wedding theme. Lorelai really liked Rory's idea of using Luke's decorations and talked Miss Patty into smuggling in some of the ones that were used during the Stars Hollow Thanksgiving festival. As a final touch to the theme, Rory chose a bouquet of bright orange roses to blend in with the colors of the decorations.

On the morning of the wedding, it began to snow. Lorelai told Rory it was a sign of good luck and invited her to come along with her to take Paul Anka for his walk before they headed over to the diner to prepare for the wedding.

"So kiddo, tell me who you're inviting to today's shindig again," Lorelai asked as Paul Anka leaped and pranced in the snow, he loved snow just as much as his mommy did.

"Well, my official invites include you and Luke, of course, and Lane and Zack and their twins, Sookie, Jackson and their children, Jess mom's, Liz, and TJ and their little girl, Dean and Lindsay, Paris and Doyle, and Marty. Dad's bringing Gigi with him and Jess has some friends coming from Truncheon Books. Unofficially, I sort of invited a few more guests behind Jess' back.

"Let me guess… Miss Patty, Babette, Morey and Kirk?"

"You got it. Jess didn't want me to let any of Stars Hollow's so called freaks come to 'his' wedding, but there was no way I could exclude them, they've been my friends since I was a little girl. I just hope they'll be on their best behavior today."

"Let's forget the freaks of Stars Hollow for a minute. Did you say Dean was bringing _Lindsay_ to the wedding?" Lorelai asked, majorly surprised.

"Yeah… I'm not crazy about her coming, but Dean is Jess' friend now, too, so I didn't think I had much of a choice but to let him bring her when he asked if he could."

"Mmm… well Miss Patty, Babette and Kirk are a handful, but one Lindsay might be cancel out anything even those three could cook up. You didn't put your grandparents on your unofficial guests list, did you?"

"No, I wanted to, but I knew Jess would throw a fit and they'd probably spend the whole time insulting him and Luke, anyway."

"Mama's taught her little girl well," Lorelai declared with relief. "Come on Paul Anka; let's go home, you've had enough fun in the snow for one day."

The wedding was scheduled for three o'clock in the afternoon, but Lorelai and Rory decided they would arrive at Luke's early and leisurely feast on a nice hearty breakfast of pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs and then hang out for a little while before they started preparing for the wedding. When they walked into the restaurant, they expected a cheerful greeting from Luke and for the diner to be packed with lots of people having breakfast since it was Saturday morning. Instead, Luke looked disappointed when they arrived and there were only three people eating at the diner: Kirk, Babette and Morey.

"Oh, doll, I'm sorry your wedding's gonna get wiped out today by the big blizzard that's coming," Babette rasped out.

"Blizzard? What Blizzard? I don't remember hearing anything about a blizzard," Lorelai commented, hoping that if she repeated the word "blizzard" enough it would magically go away.

"You would have if you ever bothered to turn on the news or pick up a newspaper," Luke replied incredulously.

"I haven't had time to watch the news or read a newspaper, Rory and I have been busy this week trying to get ready for this wedding."

"It's supposed to be the largest blizzard to ever hit the Northeast that they know of since they've started keeping weather records. The National Weather Service has predicted Stars Hollow will be receiving 4 feet of snow," Kirk announced, using his official voice, trying to sound important as he conveyed the bad news to Lorelai and Rory.

"Where's Jess?" Rory cried out in a panicked voice.

"He's upstairs sleeping. He got in about one o'clock in the morning. Apparently he doesn't watch the news either or he wouldn't have bothered to make the trip," Luke commented, shaking his head.

"Well, this isn't what we planned, but if we can only get Reverend Skinner to still come in and perform the ceremony, then we'll still be able to get married," Rory replied, still hopeful. "I'll go ahead and give him a call."

Rory grabbed the phone near Luke's counter and frantically started dialing. While she was on the phone, Sookie came inside the diner with a wedding cake.

"Hello! Hello!" Sookie called out cheerfully. "I wasn't sure if you were still having the wedding today with the blizzard coming, but I figured I'd better bring the cake over here early, just in case."

"Thanks, so much, Sookie. It's beautiful, what kind of cake did you make? " Lorelai asked, admiring Sookie's creation.

"It's a sour cream, lemon poppy cake with a butter cream frosting. Soooo, _is_ there going to be a wedding today?" Sookie asked, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.

"There will be if we can still get Reverend Skinner to come and perform the ceremony. Can we count on you and Jackson to join us if we can get the reverend here?" Lorelai asked, hopeful that her best friend could be at least be there with her to watch her only child getting married.

"Oh, Lorelai, if it were just me and Jackson I could, but they're predicting there'll already be two feet of snow fallen by three o'clock and it'll be really hard for us to bring the kids along in this weather. I'm really sorry, sweetie, I really wish I could come, but I'm glad I got here at least to bring you the cake. Guess I'd better get going before the snow plow comes through here and buries my car in. I really hope you all can get the Reverend to come over here to perform the vows, the sooner he can make it the better," Sookie advised.

Rory hung up from her phone call just as Sookie was leaving.

"What's the verdict?" Lorelai asked, standing on pins and needles.

"He said he could still make it, but only if I agreed to let him come over here in and do it the next thirty minutes, so I told him to come on over."

"Well, you better go wake up your fiancée and give him the news, then. I'll get your dress ready for you to put on and Luke can push some tables and chairs together to make it look a little more wedding like in here. Luke?"

"I'm on it," he replied.

Just then Jess' mom, Liz, came bounding in with her husband TJ and their little girl. Liz and TJ were dressed in the same Renaissance costumes they were wearing from their own wedding ceremony. Luke looked them up and down and rolled his eyes, then had to suppress a chuckle when he pictured what Jess was going to say when he saw them in their outlandish outfits.

"I can't believe you made it in this weather," Luke commented.

"Nothing short of a tsunami would stop me from coming here today to see my oldest child getting married," Liz exclaimed. "Where is the little stinker?" she laughed, already knowing Jess was going to give her a crabby greeting when he saw her.

"He's upstairs getting ready. We almost had to cancel because of the blizzard, but Rory got the Reverend to agree to come over here early to do the ceremony, but only if could do it within the next half hour, so lucky you got here early."

"So… Luke… how do you like my tights? Pretty spiffy, eh?" TJ asked obnoxiously.

"TJ, you ask me about those stupid tights every time you wear them and I always tell you the same thing – you look absolutely ridiculous."

"All right, all right, brother-in-law, but little by little we'll get you to come around and I bet we'll even get you and Lorelai to wear renaissance attire to your own wedding someday," TJ responded, purposely painting him into a corner to get him to comment on his intentions with Lorelai to get him back for insulting him.

Lorelai looked at Luke expectantly, wondering how he was going to respond.

"Look, TJ, don't tell me and Lorelai how to run our lives until you've figured out how to run your own pathetic life," Luke muttered grumpily.

Lorelai looked down in disappointment at Luke's neutral response. She wished just for once that Luke could make his intentions clear and let her know if he wanted to try and get married again. She'd already proposed to him once and she wasn't going to humiliate herself by proposing a second time.

Just then, Taylor and Miss Patty came bursting through the front door of the diner.

"Ah-ha! Just as I suspected, Luke, you and Miss Patty **stole** these decorations from the festival and I want them back right now!" Taylor screamed out angrily as he looked around the diner and saw the evidence displayed all around him.

"Taylor, you idiot, I haven't seen a single plow truck come through the streets yet and we're in the middle of the biggest blizzard Stars Hollow has had since the last Ice Age and you're worried about a couple of lousy decorations?"

"Those decorations happen to be the product of fine craftsmanship and are very valuable and Miss Patty had no right taking them without asking my permission and I'm holding her _and_ you personally responsible!" Taylor rumbled, still shaking with rage.

Just then, Rory descended the staircase in her wedding dress, looking like a vision and all the petty arguments that had been filling the diner since she'd gone upstairs, dissipated like a vanishing vapor.

"Taylor, Miss Patty! I'm so happy to see you could make it to my wedding," Rory called out enthusiastically, wearing a luminous smile that stretched from ear to ear. She had been so sad a while ago when she realized her wedding celebration had been cancelled, but she'd come to realize that some of Stars Hollows most cherished citizens were going to be there to witness her marriage to Jess and their presence made her feel safe and loved, like she was a little girl again.

"Oh, yes, yes, we know it's a little nippy out today, but Miss Patty and I wanted to be here and I hope you'll find that these lovely decorations from our festival will enhance your wedding celebration," Taylor replied with a rarely spoken gracious remark, trying to hide the real reason he'd come to the diner.

"I love them, they're just beautiful," Rory responded as she glanced around the diner and admired the ornamentations.

The reverend finally arrived, and right behind him came Lane and Zack, all smiles and bubbly, not looking concerned about the blizzard at all.

"Lane, you made it! Thank goodness you're here!" Rory called out enthusiastically, running over to hug her best friend. "I was so afraid you weren't going to be able to make it. Sookie wanted to come, but she was afraid to bring her kids out in this weather."

"Mrs. Kim has the twins today and she's willing to watch them for as long as we need her to. Besides, Steve and Kwan were little monsters last night and we figure the steady diet of fermented tofu and steamed mung bean sprouts she's going to be shoving down their throats, with no candy in sight, will be a pretty good punishment," Lane laughed.

"Well, it means an awful lot to me to have you both here today," Rory said appreciatively.

"Hey, you were there for our wedding. We weren't going to let a little thing like a snow storm make us miss yours," Zack replied warmly.

"Oh… speaking of which, Mom I have a lot of messages on my cell phone. Do you think I should check my voice mail?"

"Hon, I'd say it's a safe bet they all called to say they couldn't make it here today. You can listen to them later and just call them back then if you want to."

"Okay, looks like we have everything we need for a wedding, but the groom," Reverend Skinner joked, "and I hate to rush everyone, but it looks like that snow is really coming down hard now," he noted as the velocity of the winds accelerated, making the snow fall to the earth in the classic diagonal pattern of a blizzard storm.

"The National Weather Service has just revised their previous bulletin and the level of snowfall Stars Hollow will be receiving now will be 6 feet instead of 4," Kirk announced in an almost horror movie tone of voice as he listened to the breaking news item come through the headphones attached to his portable radio.

"Oh my stars! Six feet of snow?" Miss Patty exclaimed. "Go tell Jess to hurry up, Rory honey! I want to have time to eat some of your wedding cake before we have to leave!"

"I second that, sugah, I don't wanna miss out on the cake either!" Babette piped in, even though she had just gobbled up three Belgian waffles, a side order of hash browns, six pieces of sausage and washed it all down with a large hot chocolate with extra whipped cream.

"Okey, doke!" Rory replied, going upstairs to fetch him.

Rory was taken aback when she saw Jess in Luke's apartment, looking so fantastic in his tux that even the world "handsome" was inadequate to describe the way he looked right now.

"Jess!" she exclaimed, feeling faint. "We have to hurry, Reverend Skinner's here to marry us and he has to leave pretty soon because they say this blizzard's going to be even worse than they expected.

"Who all's here?"

"Well, my mom and Luke of course, your mom and TJ and your sister, Lane and Zack are here and um… so are Babette and Morey, Kirk, Miss Patty and Taylor.

"Great! Our wedding is going to be filled with so many freaks it'll be a frickin' circus," Jess muttered sarcastically as he followed Rory downstairs.

The minute he saw Liz and TJ and his little sister dressed up in their Renaissance clothes, Jess almost called the whole thing off, until he glanced over at Rory and saw the look in her eyes and knew how much it meant to her to get married today. He peered out at the rushing blizzard pouring out of the sky like it was never going to end and almost started laughing. His wedding day was turning into quite a bizarre event and that's when he realized he wouldn't want it any other way because things usually didn't go well for him when everything was too "normal" in his world, anyway.

Reverend Skinner fast forwarded the ceremony, leaving out his usual humorous quips, much to Rory and Lorelai's disappointment. Once the Reverend declared Jess and Rory husband and wife, Luke quickly started serving everyone coffee while Jess and Rory cut the wedding cake. After Babette and Miss Patty each polished off their third slice of cake, Kirk made another announcement that as much as three feet of snow had already fallen in parts of Stars Hollow and everyone started to quickly leave except Jess' mom, TJ and their little girl, who had driven in from Brooklyn.

"Well kiddies, I never heard if you were planning on having a honeymoon or not, but I can put you up at the bridal suite over at the Dragonfly…"

"That sounds very nice, thank you Lorelai," Jess replied to Lorelai, displaying uncharacteristic gratitude. He'd actually wanted to surprise Rory with a honeymoon vacation to Belize, but that was out of the question now and he was grateful they'd at least have a nice room at the Dragonfly.

"Liz and TJ, looks like it'll be impossible for you all to make the drive back to Brooklyn. Why don't you all stay at Luke's apartment and Luke and I will head over to my house?" Lorelai offered.

"Thanks, Lorelai, I'm so happy Rory's officially my daughter-in-law. Now I can't wait 'til you become my sister-in-law," she commented cheerfully, having faith it would happen soon.

"**You** put her up to saying that. Didn't you?" Luke barked at TJ, glowering at him and Liz on his way out the door.

"Oh… don't mind him, he's always like this when we have 6 feet of snow, Lorelai joked, trying to cover up her embarrassment.

When Jess and Rory arrived at the Dragonfly, there was only a skeleton staff there to greet them, but they had taken great care to roll out the red carpet treatment for the boss' daughter and her new son-in-law. When they arrived in the bridal suite, there was a basket waiting for them with Godiva chocolates and gourmet cheeses and crackers and a bottle of Moët was chilling inside a sterling silver bucket of ice. An attendant came up to light a fire for them and told them that whenever they were ready, they could call and have room service deliver their meal.

A half later, they ordered the Chateau Briand for Two and toasted each other with a sparkling glass of champagne.

"Here's to forever, Mrs. Mariano," Jess said as he lifted his glass.

"To forever, Mr. Mariano," she agreed, clinking his crystal champagne flute with hers and drinking in the joy of being Jess' wife at last.

_**** EPILOGUE – The Wedding Dress****_

At the time Rory had gotten married, her only married friends had been Zack and Lane, but about two weeks after her and Jess tied the knot, that quickly started changing when she got a call from Paris informing her that she and Doyle were getting married in a month. Rory figured out rather quickly it was yet another competitive move on Paris' part to keep up with her, but she'd didn't care because she knew the only man in the world that could ever tolerate Paris' neurotic behavior would be Doyle anyway, so she was pleased they'd decided to marry. Paris was happy when Rory "offered" her the wedding dress, especially when she learned it came with the opportunity to have her wedding included in a historical book, so Rory took the wedding gown to the vintage boutique in Stars Hollow and waited outside the shop for Paris, so no one else could grab the "free dress."

Shortly before Paris married, Rory learned that Dean and Lindsay were retying the knot in a few weeks because Lindsay was already three months pregnant, so she asked Paris to meet Lindsay in front of the shop in Hartford after her wedding ceremony, just like she'd done for her.

After Dean and Lindsay married, Rory found out that Amber, from Truncheon Books, had asked Jess to fix Marty up with her and the two of them had embarked on a whirlwind romance and were planning on marrying in Manhattan in another month. Again, she asked Lindsay to make arrangements to meet Amber at the vintage dress shop back in Stars Hollow to make the switch.

About nine months after she'd married Jess, a letter arrived from her mother, telling her that Luke had finally popped the question. Rory called Amber to find out which vintage dress shop in Manhattan she'd taken the gown to after her wedding ceremony and phoned the shop only to find out that'd it been "given" to someone less than a hour after she'd dropped it off. Rory was disappointed about the dress, but ecstatic that her mother and Luke were finally getting married and she hoped their wedding would take place on a snowy day, because those were the luckiest days of all she thought, recalling her own wedding day and that other special snowy day, when her and Jess decided to get married because of a magical dress that was hanging in a little vintage clothing shop somewhere in a quiet corner of Philadelphia.

**THE END**


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